On the longest day in a year the sun will have an extraordinary rise and shine. And runners’ company all day long. At 5:44 sharp in Chamonix eight teams from six continents will try to beat the sun. They only have time to do that before the sunset, that is until 21:25. The distance of 140 km was divided into 12 sections. The contestants are up for climbing, steep ascent, risky downhill runs, a lot of snow in higher parts of the mountains, quick asphalt sections and breathtaking views. And Monsieur Mt. Blanc will be watching all that.
Every team consists of three running experts, among others the fastest American marathoner, Ryan Hall, his compatriot, a brown medalist of the Olympic Games in marathon, Deena Kastor, an Olympic medalist in speed skating from Holland, Erben Wennemars, Duncan Kiptanui from Kenia, who handles a half marathon in an hour with a little bit and Eun Ju Kwon, whose marathon record in South Korea remained unbeaten for 18 years.
The second part of the team are amateurs selected by a group of Asics experts to take part in the Beat the Sun 2016 from among several dozen thousand candidates. This year, for the first time in the history, two Poles are in that group. Tomek Domżalski and Piotr Myślak will race the sun as Europe Central. They are mentioned among the favorites apart from Europe South and team Americas 1. We keep our fingers crossed!
Just before the event starts we had a short chat with some of the participants. Beat The Sun is an amazing race, beautiful nature, but also extraordinary people who make it.
Europe Central
Emmanuel Vaudan, a troubled teens teacher and an outstanding ski mountaineer from Switzerland, is the captain of “our” team. Together with a much younger Charles Franzke from Germany, a specialist in obstacle running, he will struggle on an awfully difficult third section. They were both in a wonderful mood, easily chose the right tactics. Emmanuel is to lead during an uphill run and climbing, Charles will impetuously run downhill. This is the only race part that participants do in pairs. Tomek was assigned to deal with three very fast sections at the beginning and at the end of the race and a downhill run from Arnuva to Courmayeur in Italy. Piotrek “Fruit” Myślak will first climb in a full alpine equipment up to nearly 2500 meters, and then he is up to a deadly ascent on the via ferrata. Europe Central is the only all-men team.
The Americas 2
For a change as many as four women will run hand in hand with sun in Americas 2 team, whose captain will be Ryan Hall mentioned above. We asked him how he felt in a team composed of nearly all women. He said that Deena Kastor herself is stronger than most of male participants in the race, and, apart from that, he and his wife Sara have just adopted four Ethiopian girls, so... he is used to being surrounded by women at home.
East Asia
Petite Eun Ju Kwon will lead the East Asia team to victory. The South Korean marathoner is concerned about demanding downhill runs, but she may count on concrete support from her battle-hardened colleagues. Toru Higashi from Japan runs a marathon in 2:19, and Yadi Guan from China has done UTMB and twice Tor De Geants. Yadi is a film producer and is preparing a documentary from this year’s event.
Oceania Pacific
Remaining on the eastern hemisphere we now move to Oceania Pacific. The leader of the team, Russell Dessaix-Chin, has been preparing for the run in his native Australia, running on trails, stairs, and, additionally... jumping on wooden picnic tables. He remembers tourists looking at him like he was a madman. Au Ka Lun from Hong Kong, an experienced marathoner, believes the key to succeed in his run will be to carefully watch the pulse on uphill runs. If he doesn’t get carried away by emotions, the team will beat the sun.
Team Americas 1
Team Americas 1 is a combination of power from Canada, the US and Argentina. The boss of that team is Megan Kimmel, taking part in BTS already for the third time and the most experienced of all runners of that edition. In her debut run she lost with the sun by 4 seconds (shocking!), to beat the sun at the second attempt by 9 seconds (even more shocking!). Choosing Megan as a captain came as no surprise to us, because that American from Colorado had run her own café for many years and has experience in managing people. Manuel Mendez, an accountant from Argentinian Mar del Plata, will be her right hand. We asked Manuel if the counting skills helped him prepare the team’s strategy. He responded that these were two different worlds, but, on the other hand, he often manages to solve complicated work-related problems while running.
Europe South
In the second European team, Europe South, the greatest star and the leader is Sylvaine Cussot, a member of the French national team in mountain running. Tiny “Sissi” has been running since she turned six and knows the Alps inside out. In her opinion, to be successful in running resting at least one day a week is an absolute must. Xavier Chevrier from Italy adds that it is important to eat a lot of vongole and fish spaghetti, which is the best mountain fuel. He comes from Torino and loves “Il Capitano”, Polish footballer Kamil Glik. In Xavier’s opinion Fratelli D'Italia are going to win the EURO 2016 in France!
Africa
Africa’s representation will also take part in Beat The Sun. Givemore Mudzinganyama loves running in Zimbabwe together with his wife, he is, however, respectful of running in the Alps. He pays attention to such details as different ground, tricky aura, excessive snow in the upper parts of the mountains. But he intends to give more of himself – just as his name indicates... Carla van Huyssteen from South Africa is a natural team leader. She loves triathlons and mountain challenges. She immediately matched particular sections of the BTS route to her partners’ skills.
Europe North
The last, but a very strong team, is Europe North, led by a former European champion in running 100 km, Jonas Buud. Erben Wennemars will definitely be the team’s strong link, with whom we had a long talk about sports during dinner. We were captivated by his motto concerning trail running: “On the road you have to push yourself. On the trail you'll be pushed by the nature”. It says it all. With these beautiful words we finish our pre-race report and we are getting ready for the start together with the participants. It’s time to Beat The Sun by Asics!
